“What Were You Thinking” by Morris Dance

I know. You saw pretty things: how the birds

Paint themselves wild with color, flowers

Ruffle and flounce. You wanted to be pretty too.

And you are: to the poets, the painters,

Little children who feel a parade when

You arrive, and those dizzy young men with

Stars in their eyes who don’t want to rub them

Away, ever. All those in this world who

Are numbered among the hopelessly sane.

 

But when you put on clothes he could forget

How we are in this world; began to think

About other things than bringing you shells

Or flowers or desserts; began to think

Maybe life isn’t that much of a mystery;

Began to think things looked better in straight

Lines, that black and white were the best colors.

Flowers and birds and contentment­­­­-useless.

Well, alright, as long as they didn’t get

In the way. And he began counting: stars

Trees, gold, slaves, houses, children, and kisses;

Began to believe whatever he could count

Was important because it was counted.

And soon everything had a number. Then

 

He climbed still higher to see if it all

Could be counted. Oh, he liked you better

Covered. It got rid of those distractions

Like life and love, beauty and meaning. But,

There was nothing to anchor him to earth;

Nothing to remind him life needs a root;

Nothing to get in the way of counting

Each thing­­­- all the way­­­- to his extinction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morris Dance attended the University of Utah and studied with Galway Kinnell, Judith Hemschemeyer, and Richard Schramm. Time, sadly, they will never get back. He has worked in a variety of jobs; among them retail management and transit bus driver. Time, sadly, he will never get back. He currently resides alone, accursed, yet strangely happy in California’s central valley.